Posts Tagged ‘Barak Obama’

I have been unable to kick my ass into gear these past few days. I have so many readings and yet I find myself going home, sleeping, or sitting around in a daze. It’s not a good habit to develop into.

I am currently reading Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. I find it appropriate that I am reading this in the same week that President Obama will be sworn into office. We are examining the ways in which America conceives of masculinity.

Hamlet for my Psychoanalysis and Early Modern Drama course is looming along with Lacanian Psychoanalytic criticism. Sure there is some random theory for my various other courses that I am ignoring. Ugh, off to read I go. Cheers.

Thursdays are usually Blog days. The first part of my week is filled with schoolwork, as well as hotel work and as a result I am either too tired or too busy to update. Quite a bit has happened this past week.

Let us start with the most obvious: Barack Obama: President Elect. While I am pleased to see that there is now a person of color in the Oval Office and that history has indeed been made, I am still wary of this so called “CHANGE!”.

Yes, Barack Obama has a positive message and has run an admirable campaign. But he is also a Harvard Law School Lawyer who has spent his entire life in Politics. Why should I trust this man because of the struggles he’s endured. Or, because of his professing “Yes, We can! Change!” which is a clever rhetorical strategy for any politician to employ, no clever that McCain tried to use this same rhetoric during his speech in the NRC.

I guess that we will all see the results of America’s choice in this President and whether or not he is capable of keeping his promises. Only time will tell. Until then, people will just have to content themselves with a Historical social barrier being broken and the inspiration that this act has engendered in so many people.

Michael Crighton passed away yesterday. And while many will scoff at his “literary” contributions it is still a tragedy when someone as influential as him in the publishing world passes away. I, like most everyone I know who reads on a regular basis, experienced a period where I enjoyed many “airport-books”: Crighton, Clancy, Grisham, etc. And while literary elites will sneer at this type of genre fiction, I would suggest that there is nothing wrong with this particular preference as long as one understands that this is a particular type of fiction and as such to expect Nobel like fiction is to engage in folly. I mean this man has brought us the joy of Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Rising Sun, all books that have been adapted, some good and some not so much. Still his contributions will be missed.

I have yet to figure out what my major Theory paper will focus on. I must choose one particular “piece” and another specific theorists that we have covered in course. I have been considering Ezra Pound’s “The Cantos”, obviously not the entire work, but a few choice Canto and would use this piece in relation with Saussure’s theory on semiotics and language systems. Still not sure yet. We’ll have to see.

Not much else is going in life, just work and school and more work.

Oh and I did pick up the Third Volume of Neil Gaiman’s ABSOLUTE SANDMAN. Only one more to go and I’ll own the entire series in fancy leather-bound volumes. I’m uber excited. I already have the entire series in trade paperback graphic novel form, but this is something altogether different. Cheers.

I wonder how many Canadians are aware that a Canadian Election is immenent. You would be hard pressed to know this fact by glancing at the front cover of today’s Globe & Mail. It makes sense that I know more about the current U.S. Presidential Election than most, I grew up in the U.S., but the majority of my friends who were raised Canadian, are also more informed about this current Presidential Race than they do about the current goings on of their own political system, and that to me is a sad fact.

Let me be clear, I fully admit and accept that this particular election is quite historic. The first female contender for a Democratic nomination, and the first nomination of an African American for the potential Presidency, these are indeed amazing times for the U.S.

When is the last time you heard someone discuss Canadian soldiers fighting over in Afghanistan, or the ebbing economy? I’m willing to bet that if you were to walk into any Tim Hortons, you are more likely to hear people discussing Barak Obama’s latest speech or Michael Phelps’s Olympic feats.

I’m just as guilty as you, my blog reader. I too, as a Canadian Citizen should be more aware of the politics, and cultural events of my country, yet too often I am distracted by the sparkle of the U.S.

It just seems to me that a Canadian newspaper should lead with Canadian headlines. I am sure that there is something of concern to Canadians that affects Canadians. I am pretty sure that the Globe & Mail has a section devoted to WORLD NEWS and that U.S. issues are discussed there amongst other nations.

The Toronto Star was a bit better than the Globe & Mail, as it’s secondary story on their main page was devoted to the recent Maple Leaf Foods lysteria outbreak, with the Canadian Election a third.

While Canadian Politics are for the most part dull and banal affairs for my own tastes, and I am sure the same feeling for most of you my fellow Canadian readers, it’s still sad that we promote a U.S. Election over our Canadian.

I guess all I can do is try to pay attention a bit more to the politics of my own country and be a more informed citizen.